At the 2008 Winter NAMM Show, Eric Barbour of Metasonix introduced the G-1000 Fucking Fucker (not the sucking fucker), a high-end tube amp that brings Barbour’s interest in using using vacuum tubes in original ways to amps.

Here’s what Barbour has to say about the Fucking Fucker:

There is nothing like the G-1000. Not even vaguely. It is arcane and radical. It is 100% vacuum tubes, from input to output. It contains 100% new-old-stock (NOS) tubes. Types never seen in guitar amps.

The G-1000 consists of two totally independent amplifiers, with very different preamp sections. One channel is called the HAPPY channel. The other is called the ANGRY channel.

For damn good reason. One sucks your face, the other gnaws your foreskin off.

The HAPPY channel is a more-or-less conventional instrument amp. It has plenty of gain and distortion (if desired), it has a conventional guitar-amp tone control section, and it has reverb. Everything else about it is DEVIANT. It has a PHASE control, which allows mixing of normal and inverted signals—or it may be adjusted to cancel out the original signal and pass only the distortion products….and, it’s all made of unusual tubes. Mostly pentodes, ha ha ha.

The ANGRY channel is well-named. It is designed for instability and raw, berserk distortion effects. It, too, has typical guitar-amp tone controls and reverb. It uses a 6BN6 and two remote-cutoff pentodes. Ask your mother what those are. She’s already tasted your foreskin anyway.

Despite the identical output stages of the two channels, they sound TOTALLY different. In ALL settings.

The output tubes are 6BK5s. Obscure, yes, but great and forgotten. Phase inversion is done with 6GU7s. Various types are used throughout the preamp stages: 6AU6, 6BJ6, 6CB6, 6BN6, 5BQ7, 6AK5, and others. No 12AX7s, of ANY brand. How many tubes? TWENTY-THREE tubes in total. Including eight 6BK5 outputs. It might be the most complex tube guitar amp available today….

The output tubes are in a special self-balancing, self-biasing circuit. It is unique to the G-1000 among guitar amps. It does NOT NEED matched tubes, nor is any kind of bias adjustment needed. Output power is 15 watts per channel, and two speakers (or a stereo speaker) are needed.

Vast ranges of tone are available from the G-1000. We cannot even begin to explain its flexibility. The G-1000 is NOT intended for middle-aged “tone questers”, who believe that they will be able to play like Eric Clapton by simply spending a lot of $$$ on equipment. We HATE those people. The G-1000 is intended for the intrepid experimenter, not the pathetic imitator. Tone questers are invited to DIE.

No, you moron, it’s not available in combo form. Head only.
Speakers are available from other suppliers.

Artwork on the amp’s front panel by Dave Lovelace, of “Retarded Animal Babies” infamy. (http://www.umop.com)

Oh, the amp’s name? The idea came from Mike Brown of Livewire Synthesizers. Blame him. (It came from one of Dave Lovelace’s cartoons. Yes, the Fucking Fucker is a real, live cartoon character. A super-villain, come to think of it.)

G-1000 is made on a custom basis only and should be available in late 2008. Expected retail price is US $ 5000.

Unfortunately, Barbour didn’t have the Fucking Fucker in action at the NAMM show. Watch his site for audio samples.

You can read more about Barbour and the way he uses tubes in our interview.